AL-KARABISI. Kitab al-furuq "Book of Theological Differences" by Abu al-Muzaffar As'ad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Naysaburi al-Karabisi al-Hanafi (d. 1174-5) Egypt or Syria, dated 11 Rabi' al-awwal 569 H/20 October 1173, copied by Muhammad b. Hibatullah b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarrada Arabic manuscript of 190 leaves, text on oriental paper, in unvocalized black naskh with black/brown ink of 20 lines, numbering of quires partially preserved in the upper left corner, foliation and part of the claims subsequent to the copy, numerous marginal comments, colophon dated and giving the identity of the copyist, collation mark, leaves restored in the 19th century, notably the first leaf, table of contents added in the 19th century, later binding, bookplate "Château de Rosny La Solitude" with Lebaudy's figure and typed descriptive leaf. Size : 26 x 17,5 cm (leaves) ; 20 x 12 (writing surface) Provenance : Paul Lebaudy (1858-1937), library of the Château de Rosny " La Solitude ". The Château de Rosny is the former property of the Duchess of Berry The text of the Kitab al-furuq by Abu al-Muzaffar As'ad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Naysaburi al-Karabisi al-Hanafi (d. 1174-5) was written during the sixth century A.H., most likely in Samarquand where the author was living at the time (see Elias Saba, Harmonizing Similarities: A History of Distinctions Literature in Islamic Law. Harmonizing Similarities. Berlin 2009, pp. 71, 204). This is the only text on legal distinctions to have been composed during the sixth century AH and is of major importance as the first work on furuq in the Hanafi madhhab. Several manuscripts of it are preserved today (Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, 292 fiqh hanafi, undated manuscript; Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, 293 fiqh hanafi, dated 622 AH/1224-5 ; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Fatih 2039, dated 776 H/1374-5; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Carullah 821, 1007 H/1598-99 It is still the most popular Hanafi text on legal distinctions. The present manuscript is of major importance as it contains the first text on legal distinctions in the Hanafi Madhhab and is the oldest surviving manuscript of this text. The colophon of the manuscript provides the date of completion of the copy, Sunday 11 of the month of Rabi I 569 H/20 October 1173, as well as the name of the copyist, Muhammad b. Hibatallah b. Muhammad b. Hibatallah b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarada. The colophon text also states that the copyist prepared the manuscript for his personal use by collating the text (balagha) on the autograph, which is not preserved for us. The copyist can be identified as a calligrapher who belonged to a powerful family of Aleppine intellectuals, the Banu'l-Abi Jarada, a Sunni family of Hanafi rite (See David James, "Qurʾans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids," in Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250, eds. Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld, London 2009, p.354). While no manuscript by him, except for the present volume, has survived, he is to be found in the oldest dated manuscript of al-Hariri's Maqamat. This codex, which bears an ijaza of al-Hariri dated Sha'ban 504 AH / February 1111, belonged to his first cousin, the famous historian and jurist, Kamal al-Din Abu 'Umar b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarada, known as Ibn al-'Adim. A reading mark dated 17 Jumada II 604 H/8 January 1208 thus attests to the presence of our calligrapher in Aleppo and his involvement in the literate circles of the time (See on the subject of the manuscript and the reading mark, Pierre MacKay, "Certificates of Transmission on a Manuscript of the Maqāmāt of Ḥarīrī (MS. Cairo, Adab 105)," Transactions of the American philosophical society: New series 61, no. 4 (1971): 22). He is later traced in Müstakimzade's biographical dictionary of calligraphers, which mentions that Muhammad b. Hibatallah Abi Jarada was known to work in the manner of the great calligrapher Ibn al-Bawwab and copied an entire Qur'an during each month of Ramadan (Süleyman Müstakimzade, Tuhfe-i hattatin, Istanbul 1928, 464). He is said to have died in 628 H/1230-31 at the age of 82.